Electronic components, such as resistors and capacitors, with wire leads extending axially from the ends thereof are often packaged by placement thereof in parallel juxtaposition with respect to one another and taping the ends of the axial leads together to form a ladder like structure. Such structure can be formed in continuous lengths and rolled into reels or formed in discrete lengths in the form of cards. In order to install the electronic components in the electronic devices in which they are employed, their axial leads must be cut to predetermined lengths and formed into a suitable shape for insertion in a printed circuit board. To accomplish this, machines have been developed and utilized for cutting and forming the axial leads of the components in the manner indicated. Such machines usually include means for stripping the electronic components from the cards or taped reels on which they are packaged.
Various cutting and forming machines have been provided in the past to process the axial leads of electronic components. Typical of these are the processing machines disclosed in the following United States Patents: U.S. Pat. No. 2,929,289 to Gorecki, U.S. Pat. No. 3,057,528 to Cole et al, U.S. Pat. No. 3,396,758 to Hall, U.S. Pat. No. 3,640,113 to Heller et al and U.S. Pat. No. 3,701,298 to Heller et al.
In addition to the foregoing machines, unpatented devices are also known in the art. These include the Mark V Component Lead Former, manufactured by Technical Devices Company, Division of Banner Industries, Culver City, Calif. and the CF7 Component Forming Machine, manufactured by General Production Devices of Van Dorf, Ontario. Unfortunately, each of the aforesaid patents and unpatented devices do not disclose feed mechanisms for introducing electronic components on cards into forming machines. On the contrary, they disclose devices adapted for the processing of transistor leads that do not have taped wires, and also disclose devices for receiving components having axial leads packaged in reels.
In the majority of these devices a pair of rotating gear shaped pickup wheels engage the axial leads of the components contained on the tape and carry the same past cutting and forming dies to accomplish the processing operation. In such process, the components are stripped from the taped carriers on which they are packaged.
To feed the components properly into the forming machine, feed guides are usually provided to engage the ends of the component bodies. In the feeding of cards containing electronic components with axial leads the devices that have been provided, such as the Model E Automatic Feed Chute, manufactured by Technical Devices Company and the CCF7 Feeder for Card Mounted Components, manufactured by General Production Devices, certain deficiencies have been found.
The most serious of these deficiencies is the inability of the feed devices to be adjusted to receive electronic components having varying wire diameters. As a result, in order to render the chute capable of receiving large as well as small diameter wire leads the chutes have been provided with extra wide slots. This does not properly guide the components into the forming machine and often results in damage to the components or jamming of the machines. In addition, existing card feed chutes deliver the electronic components directly into the teeth of the wheels on the forming machine, and do not provide a means by which the components can be carefully picked up by such wheels. This also creates the potential difficulty of jamming the machine and breaking the components.
It is the object of the present invention to provide a feed chute for axial lead cutting and forming machines which overcomes the difficulties found in the prior art.